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Comment by eigenket | Hacker News Reader

> Do you feel the statue of David is sexual and/or sexist?

I'm not the person you asked but I feel like answering with my (unwanted) perspective. The statue of David, in its current context in a museum is not a particuarly sexual or sexist object. On the other hand if my employer (or whoever) started introducing equivalent statues of naked people (of any sex) into my workplace I would probably view that as innapropriate.

This is essentially how I view the image of Jennifer - in the context of a loving relationship between two people on the beach its a nice thing, but I would view it as a bit weird if someone at my workplace started sharing an equivalent picture of their partner.

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The question is - is it you or Michelangelo who is the problem?

Some people are offendend by women having uncovered hair. Being offended does not mean everyone else have to accomodate you.

> The question is - is it you or Michelangelo who is the problem?

Clearly in the context of my comment its neither. Its whoever is bringing the naked statues into my workplace.

This (to me) is such a blindingly obvious third option that I assume you deliberately didn't include it as an option because you're trying to argue a point you know is flawed.

You are assuming the art-less workplace is the natural default. I’m from a culture where having art in the workplace and in public spaces is common and generally appreciated.

I think you're assuming that the way people interact with something is independent of its context.

The impact of (to take a random example) a university having a statue of Venus or whatever in the grounds, is not the same as having the Lenna image in a textbook

https://www.cmc.edu/news/every-picture-tells-a-story

Even though the statue might objectively be showing more, people are not automata, so the context is everything.

> I think you're assuming that the way people interact with something is independent of its context.

I’m unable to comprehend how you got to that assumption.

But to be clear, I undestand you shouldn’t bring art or musical instruments to work if you work for the Taleban. But in the story, the audience are adult creatives working professionaly with visual arts

> I’m unable to comprehend how you got to that assumption.

Because you conflate art in public spaces with the use of images like Jennifer in selling software. To me it seems obvious that these are fundamentally not the same.

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